Same Height, Same Weight Different Calories??

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 Lindsay delivers “tough love” about stopping calorie and body comparisons, even with women of the same height and weight, because maintenance and progress depend on many individual factors. 

Topics discussed:
00:00 Stop Comparing Now
00:52 Instagram Numbers Trap
02:15 Main Gaining Explained
04:17 Scale Versus Composition
05:47 What Maintenance Means
06:14 Basal Metabolic Rate Basics
10:00 NEAT Changes Everything
11:46 Exercise And Food Thermics
13:44 Why Same Stats Differ
15:59 Height Weight Myth
18:59 Client Maintenance Overshoot
19:45 Glycogen Water Weight
21:42 Find Your True Maintenance
25:01 Gap Versus Gain Mindset
26:34 App DM Reminder Wrap

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Creators and Guests

Host

Lindsay

Wife and mother of three. I have a deep passion for learning and teaching. I also really love lifting weights and fitness.

What is LiftingLindsay's More Than Fitness?

Dive into the joy of fitness with Lindsay and other guests exploring how it goes well and beyond the gym floor, the number on the scale, the size of your waist or the calories you're counting.

Speaker: Welcome, welcome to
the Lifting Lindsay Podcast.

Today is some tough love for you, okay?

We need to stop comparing.

I know I've said this a
million times, but hear me out.

Cutting, maintenance, a building
phase, it doesn't matter which one

you're in, comparing your numbers,
your calories to someone else's numbers

is, I believe, costing you potentially
progress, but mainly peace of mind.

And today, I want to go one step
further because the comparison we

think is, quote-unquote, "fair," the
one to a woman with the same height

and our same weight, it isn't fair.

You're not comparing apples to apples This
has been on my mind for a couple reasons.

Uh, the other day I posted in my
Instagram stories my height, my weight,

and how much I eat at maintenance.

And every time I do that, I really
do get an interesting response.

A few people made just kind of offhanded
remarks and few far more direct remarks.

But there are comments like,
"Well, I'm the same height, but

I weigh a lot more than you."

Okay, cool.

Uh, we're all individuals.

I would not expect us to weigh the same.

Or, "I weigh more than you."

Once again, cool.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm
supposed to do with that information.

Um, I don't know who you are
or, like, what you wanted me

to do with that, but okay.

Once again, we're all individuals.

Or, "Well, I used to eat as little
as you, and now I eat way more."

Okay, cool.

Once again, and then come
to find out they're like 30

pou- pounds heavier than me.

Yeah, so of course you eat more than me.

But why are we comparing?

In my opinion, it comes down to one
thing: we don't understand something.

There's a lack of understanding,
and that's why we compare.

We think, " Well, if I'm five eight
and weigh 130 pounds, I should be

eating the same calories as you."

Maybe, but maybe not.

So let's fix that understanding today.

So right now, I'm in what I'd call, oh,
uh, kind of a lean build, but, but I'm

kind of focusing on what some people
call main gaining, which is I'm eating

at the highest end of my maintenance
so I can get more muscle growth.

So over the past four months, my
scale weight has gone up on average

about a quarter of a pound a month.

And now it's kind of holding
strong at around 130 pounds.

So my goal is not to keep
the scale the same though.

My goal is to maintain, that's why
we're calling this main gaining,

maintain my body composition while
eating as much as I can, not I just

want the scale to stay exactly the same.

Those are two totally
different things, right?

Maintaining the scale versus maintaining
body composition, even enhancing.

So I, I shouldn't even say
maintaining body composition.

I shouldn't say maintaining/enhancing.

So let me explain that.

I take measurements, so around high
waist, my navel, my hips, my legs.

I want my stomach to stay right
where it is while my glutes and

legs develop a little bit more.

So the scale has moved up a little, and
my waist actually has kind of tightened

up just a bit, so just a quarter of
an inch over the past few months.

So isn't that interesting?

While I am gaining weight,
we're seeing the scale…

It came down.

Once again, this is over,
like, a four-month period.

The m- my waist came down
a quarter of an inch.

My glutes have gone up about a half an
inch, so this is really exciting, okay?

the scale did go up.

Not much.

But this is exactly the body
composition change I'm after, right?

And honestly, I would love to put
on another 10 pounds of muscle

If over the next five years I
could be somewhere between 135 to

140 pounds at this same level of
leanness, that would be incredible.

I don't care what the scale says.

I've had it be 120 and-- or not 120.

Well, yeah, 100 and, like, 19.

If you ever see my before pictures,
119 pounds, I was what people

refer to as skinny fat, right?

These tiny little stick legs.

I looked like I had a tube around
my stomach that I could've, you

know, floated the Nile with.

I don't know why the Nile came
into my mind, but floated some

water somewhere with, right?

That's what I looked like, and then I cut
down to 110 pounds, and I had no muscle.

So to be putting on, like, 20-plus pounds
of muscle over the past few years, I've

been excited to see the scale move up.

So if I could still see it move up while
maintaining, you know, like, my waist

around the same, that would be awesome.

That would be awesome.

So yeah, another five,
pushing 10 pounds of muscle.

Yeah.

How cool would that be?

So my perspective on weight is so
different because of my experience, right?

I don't really care what the scale says,
and I don't think you should either.

I really don't.

The better questions are, do I like
my current body composition, and can

I keep it without losing my mind?

Can I live like this forever
and enjoy my life, right?

Okay, now let's go to maintenance.

I think that it's really important.

Let's kind of break down
what creates maintenance.

So your maintenance calories are your
total daily energy expenditure, TDEE.

I'm sure a lot of you
have heard that before.

The total amount of energy
your body burns a day.

So it's built from four pieces.

Some of them you can control, and
a lot of them you actually can't.

So let's talk about this.

So one is your basic metabolic
rate, and that's roughly 60 to

70% of your day, of what you burn.

This is the energy it takes
to keep you alive at rest.

Heart beating, lungs breathing,
brain thinking, cells repairing.

It's, it's huge.

It's the biggest piece, and it's the piece
we actually have the least control over.

So what drives it?

Well, one, fat-free mass.

This is the biggest predictor, and
it's the part you can influence, right?

This is muscle.

Muscle is metabolically active
tissue, so build more of it and

you raise your baseline a bit.

Then we also have organ size.

Your brain, liver, heart, kidneys
make up a tiny fraction of your body

weight, but account for a huge share
of actually your resting energy burn.

So two women can weigh the same and
actually have different organ masses.

You don't control that.

Then there's age, sex, and hormones.

So thyroid function, sex hormones,
where you are in perimenopause

or, or post, not on the menu of
things that you get to pick, right?

Now, with that being said, I
will say thyroid function is

one that you can help or hinder.

Your thyroid does actually…

Its function, its health, it adapts
to the environment you create.

So if you are constantly under-fueling,
eating too little, it can impact

thyroid function and lower your
metabolic rate a bit because your

thyroid is not functioning very well.

So how can we control that?

Well, don't try to be dieting 24/7.

Don't live in a diet.

Don't constantly be yo-yo dieting.

Learn to master maintenance.

And I'm not talking about a fake
maintenance of, "I can only…

You know, I weigh 150 pounds and
I lift six times a week and I, you

know, have steps of 10,000, but my
maintenance calories are 1,400."

No, they're not.

No, they're not.

Are there slight variations in maintenance
or metabolic rate with height and weight?

Yes.

Yes, but there's not that big of a,
uh, a fluctuation, a difference, right?

So no, That's you telling me you
have no idea where maintenance

is and you're just guessing Okay?

So that's really important to understand.

We can influence thyroid function.

so that's important.

Genetics, here's another aspect of
basal metabolic rate, genetics, um,

and just plain individual variation.

I touched on this a little bit.

In one well-known study, fat-free
mass explained about 63% of the

differences in BMR between people.

Fat mass and age explained a few
more percent, and about a quarter of

the variation was left unexplained,
meaning same height, same weight,

same body composition, and people
still land at different numbers.

That's important to understand.

I'm gonna touch on that again in a minute.

So basal metabolic rate, like I said, is
about 60 to 70% of your total maintenance,

what makes up your maintenance calories.

Uh, non-exercise activity, NEAT,
non-exercise activity thermogenesis, that

is another part that makes up the next
biggest chunk Everything you do that isn't

purposeful exercise falls under this.

So walking to the car, fidgeting,
cleaning the kitchen, chasing kids,

standing while you work, this is the
most variable piece between people.

And research has shown that NEAT
can differ by hundreds of calories a

day, even up to around 2,000 calories
between people of similar size.

If someone's moving more, they
get to eat more to maintain.

It also tends to quietly
drop when you diet.

So when calories are suppressed,
you move less without noticing.

Partly controllable and a big
reason why two equally active,

quotes, "equally active" women
aren't actually equally active.

So this is one of the reasons
why we track our steps.

Do I really care if Susie is
taking exactly 10,000 steps?

No, I don't.

In fact, I remember teaching a lesson
one time and we were talking about, uh,

activity and we were talking about steps,
and somebody said, "So how big do my

steps need to be to qualify for a step?"

I think we've missed the
purpose of tracking steps.

Steps is just to get a general idea
of how somebody moves every day.

That's it.

That really is it, guys.

And that's a lever that we can pull.

So anyways, another thing under,
um, what creates maintenance

is exercise activity, right?

People often think th- they have this
whole idea of maintenance all flipped.

They think that exercise activity
is the biggest thing on there

that makes the biggest difference.

It actually doesn't.

It's not until way up there.

So that's really important
to understand, okay?

So your training, your lifting, your
cardio, your classes, fully controllable

by the way, we can do more or less.

But it's usually a pretty
small slice of the day.

Like, your non-exercise activity
and making sure you're just moving

a lot during the day is actually
gonna have a much greater impact on

the calories that you can eat then
the next thing we have that we can

control is the thermic effect of food.

That's around 10%.

So this is the energy it costs
your body to digest, absorb,

and process what you eat.

Once again, this is one of the
levers we can pull, and almost

nobody talks about this one too.

It is really fascinating.

Food processing can matter with this.

So in one study, people ate a whole food
sandwich that was multi-grain bread,

real cheddar, versus another group
that ate a processed version, which

was white bread and processed cheese.

With-- They both came
out to the same calories.

The processed meal produced about
half the thermic effect, roughly 73

calories burned digesting it, versus
about 137 calories that were burned

digesting the whole food version.

You wanna eat more?

Then eat more whole foods, and you
can actually see your, quote-unquote,

"maintenance numbers" increase a bit.

So when we compare, we ush- we're
usually comparing one number When

Maintenance is made up of all of
these pieces stacked together.

And a lot of times when we are comparing,
we're just kind of looking at one

thing or two things, height and weight.

Did we look at anything else?

Did we take into account the fact
that their base, their basal metabolic

rate could be different in that
maybe they have overall, yeah, they

weigh the same as us, but maybe they
have overall more muscle tissue.

Maybe their thyroid is functioning better.

I have hypothyroidism.

I constantly have to, and I
only have half my thyroid.

So I will always be monitoring my thyroid.

I will always be cautious of it.

I also have Hashimoto's, an autoimmune
disease, so I have to pay extra attention

to how well my thyroid is functioning.

Um, and then the genetic and
individual variable part is really

important, and that's what people
are not taking into account.

So maybe they are saying
like, "Look, we move the same.

We lift the same amount of days."

Even if their plates looked the exact
same, like they, they chose the exact

same whole foods every single day,
which I've never actually seen anybody

match the plate, you know, day to day,
but let's just pretend that they did.

Even then, there is going
to be some genetic and just

plain individual variation.

It's like what we said with that
study, that there were just same

height, same weight, same body
composition, people still landed

at slightly different numbers.

Okay?

So it is completely plausible for two
women to be the same height, the same

weight, doing the exact same training
with the exact same activity level, and

still have different metabolic rates.

There is still variation.

I'm gonna keep saying it
because it's so important.

You needed to hear that three times, okay?

So if she can eat 100 calories
more than you, why are we

losing our minds over that?

Okay?

Let's also talk about the comment that I
get all the time when I post my height.

I post my height, and automatically
women think that they should weigh,

if they are really fit or want to
be fit, that they should weigh the

same as me if they're my height.

And this is just a little
ridiculous, like ridiculous, right?

Because what can-- There are so many
things that can impact the weight of

an individual, even at the same height.

So frame size, that's huge.

Keep in mind, I'm very small-boned.

My ring size is like a four.

I can't even find bracelets that fit me.

I have to buy like child bracelets,
so I just don't wear them or I

have to like custom make them.

My bone structure itself is tiny.

So when somebody says, "I'm your
height, but I weigh more," that's

not a problem to be solved.

You might just have bigger bone structure.

That's not a flaw.

That, that's your skeletal system, okay?

Maybe your starting muscle or the
muscle that you have and built is

just way more than mine t- too.

How cool is that?

I came into this personally
with little to no muscle.

My starting point was ridiculously low.

I have put on my very small frame,
tall, yes, but very small and petite.

I've put on 20-plus
pounds of muscle since.

Maybe you're starting with
more muscle tissue or you,

maybe you have more right now.

Different bodies are gonna
have different numbers.

Um, the whole idea about my nutrition too.

Um, and I, I already al- alluded to
this, but let's just nail this even

further Say one woman eats more whole
foods with plenty of protein, even

more protein, and another eats mostly
processed foods with lower protein.

They're the same height and weight,
so they think, "Oh, apples to

apples," comparing apples to apples.

It's not.

That's apples to oranges.

Remember, the thermic effect of food.

The whole food eater is burning more
just digesting her food, and higher

protein is going to increase that because
protein costs the most to process,

roughly 20 to 30% of its calories.

So if we're just looking at
calories, maybe somebody can eat

more calories because a lot more
of those calories are protein.

That's another option, too, right?

And then there's everything
you just can't see.

Her non-exercise activity, organ size,
hormones, genetics, dieting history.

None of that shows up in an Instagram
story or in a post very well, okay?

So it doesn't matter what
somebody else can do.

What matters is what can you do?

Literally, that's all that matters.

Now, the second reason that this has been
on my mind is because one of my clients…

I call my app users my clients
because that's how I feel about you.

I wanna help you.

So last month on my live, I was
talking with one of my app clients,

and this past week she also sent
me a bunch of her information.

So we were working on helping her
find maintenance, and her biggest

question was, "Did I overshoot?"

So when you come out of a fat loss,
this is important to understand,

when you come out of a fat loss phase
and go back up to ma- maintenance,

the scale will move up a little.

That is very, very normal
because at the bottom of a cut,

you're in a depleted state.

You have a lot less food in your digestive
tract and your glycogen isn't full.

What is glycogen?

What is this glycogen thing that
people are always talking about?

It's the mysterious thing
on the internet, right?

Glycogen is the stored
form of carbs in your body.

Your body keeps it in your muscles,
roughly 400 to 500 grams, and also

in your liver, roughly 100 grams.

It's fuel on standby, on ready for your
training day and just overall movement.

And every gram of glycogen is stored
with about three grams of water.

So when you eat more, especially
more carbs, you refill those stores

or the fuel for your muscles is,
is what I like to think of them as.

And water comes with it.

So put it together, refilled
glycogen, more water, more food

sitting in your digestive tract.

Of course, the scale goes up, right?

Now, as I've been talking about this a
lot, trying to help clients understand,

be cautious comparing your depleted
state, the bottom of your cut, to a fuller

state, because that's not fat gains.

That's just you're now being, like,
refed, refueled, is how I like to put it.

this is why we can't
just look at the scale.

So her scale had gone up about five
pounds over the past two to three months.

So we looked at everything else too.

Her measurements, how she felt
in her clothes, those are key.

Now, her waist measurements had
slowly crept up, not overnight, not

just because she just did a refill
or, like, refilled her glycogen

or was bloated around her period.

It crept up slowly over
these three months.

So yes, yeah, she had overshot her
maintenance a little bit, and that's okay.

We came up with a plan for
her to pull back a little bit,

find where her maintenance is
now, and sit closer to that.

Now, at first, she was a little
discouraged by that, and she said, "I

feel like I should be eating more."

And it was this really…

I loved it.

I, I liked watching her
wisely kind of introspect.

she realized it, a lot of it was
because she had kind of been comparing.

All these women on Instagram seem
to be able to eat so much more.

Then she kept going, but she realized
she had lowered her energy output

substantially too after the cut, and of
course, that would impact her number too.

And then she's also an individual.

So it was kind of cool to watch her
kind of go back, forth and realize,

like, be a little discouraged that,
"Well, why can't I eat so much more?

I wanted to be able to eat more
and call that my maintenance."

But when-- but why?

Why did…

I mean, I get the idea of wanting
to eat as much as possible

and maintaining, believe me.

But I do think that there's this powerful
thing for positive or negative on social

media that sometimes we see all these
women saying, "This is what I'm eating

at maintenance," and some of us are like,
"Well, I can't eat that and maintain."

And so we kind of feel a little broken.

We're looking at that
gap of, " So am I broken?

Am I doing something wrong?"

No.

You're just an individual.

You really are.

So I love the push on Instagram to
get eat, uh, to get women eating more.

I want you asking, "How much
can I eat while maintaining?"

Not, "How little can I get away with?"

Right?

Living in a scarcity mindset 24/7 is no
way to live, and I will always encourage

the abundant side of that question But
it has to be a balanced conversation.

We can overshoot our maintenance.

If you want to hold onto body
composition, then we need to not

just look at the scale, we need to
measure, take pictures, uh, even write

down how we're feeling at certain
times, and then we kind of test out.

We eat a little bit more, we watch
the measurements, we learn where

your maintenance actually is.

Not where hers is on the internet, some
stranger online that you're following.

I don't care what hers is.

When I'm a coach, I'm watching
meticulously where my clients is.

I'm not saying, "Oh man, Becky," my
client, "that's too bad 'cause Susan

on the internet has the same weight and
height as you, and she's eating more.

We-- It's…

You're broken.

We better get you eating more."

No, no.

I don't care about the
stranger on the internet.

I care about the client in front of me
and the feedback her body is giving us.

Not everyone is going to have
the exact same maintenance.

So when I post how much I'm eating
and my activity level and all that

jazz, please be cautious about
measuring yourself against it.

You shouldn't be anything other
than what we can create with your

body on so many different levels.

That's where our focus
really, really belongs, okay?

One of my favorite books,
I've talked about this a lot,

is "The Gap and the Gain."

It is so good, by Dan
Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy.

When you consistently measure the
difference between you and somebody

else, you are living in the gap.

You're measuring against an ideal or
against a body that is just not yours.

The gain is looking back
at where you started.

" Wow, I can eat so much more than
I used to," or, "Wow, I'm so much

stronger," or, "My measurements
are moving the way I want them to.

I'm progressing."

But instead, we scroll.

We see what other women eat and, and
we think, "I should be able to eat

that, and if I can't, I'm broken."

You're not broken, you're different.

Why do we not allow for
some slight differences?

Your body, your frame, your muscles,
your history, your maintenance.

Measure your gains against you, not
against somebody else, but measure your

gains That takes practice for some of us.

We are so used to naturally falling into
the gap, and we can actually retrain our

brain to look for our gains In conclusion,
just a quick reminder for you app users.

If you're in the Lifting Lindsay
training app, and if you have

questions about your program, your
goals, finding your maintenance,

anything, use the DM inside the app.

It goes directly to me, and
I'm the one who answers it.

Please don't send those
questions on Instagram, okay?

I get a lot of messages on there, and I
have some of those automated keywords and

replies, and so sometimes when I post a
story and I'm like, "Oh, if you want this

link, reply this," and it's this automated
message that then replies to everybody.

And then what happens is your questions
get lost, because when I open up

Instagram, there's just a ton in there,
and I really want to prioritize answering

your questions, um, because you're the
ones entrusting me with your journey.

And so please use the app to DM me.

Anyways, you guys are amazing.

I hope today's episode helped.

Just another reminder, I feel like
so many of you will say, "I know all

this," but reminders are good, okay?

Remember to focus on the gains
in your life, not the gap, and

you guys have a wonderful week.